Random Reviews:

Monday, August 31, 2015

Alright I know I know, I've skipped a few days, mainly due to the weekends. I don't blog on the weekends anymore. Would rather spend that time with my family, so I'm getting caught back up today. Also I really want to mention that this challenge isn't just on the dates listed above in the graphic, this is a challenge that can be joined anytime of the year. For more information about this challenge...CLICK HERE!

Day 7 Challenge: What one thing will you focus on in 2015?

Ever wondered why you don't achieve as much as you want to? Are you spreading yourself too thin? Distracted by too many ideas?

Ever considered just ONE singular focus?

Honestly, I hadn't thought of that at all, with how busy my life gets with family, blogging, reading and work it gets a bit crazy from time to time. Hard to just focus on one thing, but I'm willing to try it.

So, my one thing is to be more organized with this blog, my business and my life. I honestly think if I do this then I will have more free time opened up to spend more time with my family. This isn't something I can do overnight though of course. It will take some time, but I think if I take each small item and then after awhile it wont be so hard to stay organized.

That is the plan, what is the one thing you want to work on for the rest of 2015?

New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping story about two sisters inexorably altered by a terrible accident.
Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late.
In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.

What Else I Plan to Read This Week

An emotional contemporary YA novel about love, loss, and having the courage to chase the life you truly want.
Reeling from her mother's death, Georgia has a choice: become lost in her own pain, or enjoy life right now, while she still can. She decides to start really living for the first time and makes a list of fifteen ways to be brave - all the things she's wanted to do but never had the courage to try. As she begins doing the things she's always been afraid to do - including pursuing her secret crush, she discovers that life doesn't always go according to plan. Sometimes friendships fall apart and love breaks your heart. But once in a while, the right person shows up just when you need them most - and you learn that you're stronger and braver than you ever imagined.

What I'll be Listening to This Week

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.
Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.
When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.
When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

So there you have it, the two books that I plan on reading this week. What are you reading this week?

Practice Makes Perfect.
Everyone at Hundred Oaks High knows that career mentoring day is a joke. So when Maya Henry said she wanted to be a rock star, she never imagined she’d get to shadow *the* Jesse Scott, Nashville’s teen idol.
But spending the day with Jesse is far from a dream come true. He’s as gorgeous as his music, but seeing all that he’s accomplished is just a reminder of everything Maya’s lost: her trust, her boyfriend, their band, and any chance to play the music she craves. Not to mention that Jesse’s pushy and opinionated. He made it on his own, and he thinks Maya’s playing back up to other people’s dreams. Does she have what it takes to follow her heart—and go solo?

Jesse's Girl is the first book I've read by author Miranda Kenneally and to say I was excited to read this one is an understatement. Put it this way, I squealed and requested it right away when I saw it on Netgalley. After reading this fantastic book, I want to go back and read the entire series, the writing is superb and I can't wait to fall in love with the other characters.

Jesse's Girl is a fantastic story, filled with great characters that I was rooting for from the start. When they say opposites attract, they really meant it when it comes to the main characters in this book. Maya and Jesse are far from the same, one of them loves rock music and plays in a rock band while trying to branch out in her music. Then there is Jesse who is a country music star, trying to figure out who he is. Like I said opposites attract and attract they did, but not at first, just like in most relationships it doesn't come that easy.

I really loved the snarkiness of Maya, I must say to me she was so easy for me to connect with. She doesn't have that much self confidence and at her age I was the same way. Jesse of course is adorable, but trying to juggle everything he has to tends to be hard at any age, especially his.

I'm so glad I requested this book and loved reading every word of it. I need more love stories like this in my life. Jesse's Girl is the perfect book to snuggle up to while outside and read the day away. If you haven't picked it up and read it yet, I highly recommend it, but head my warning your face will hurt with how much you smile. Oh and the occasional aww you will be saying, at least I did.

Gifing my Feelings

Recommendations

I would highly recommend Jesse's girl to anyone that loves author Miranda Knneally's other books. Also to anyone that loves contemporary. This would be a perfect book for you!

Here at Ali's Bookshelf we accept books in exchange for a honest review. The book above came from the publisher through Netgalley. We also use Amazon Affiliate links at times

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

So it's day 6 already, wow this is actually going faster than I thought it would. Today we are talking about business model's, I'm going to break it down and fit it into my blog and then maybe add it to my business practice as well. If you would like more information about this challenge, CLICK HERE.

Today's mission, so to speak, was really easy for me to answer. My ideal business model is a mixture of the two, active revenue and residual revenue. I love being the face of this blog plus I love doing affiliate marketing and writing. So both types are what I love. I'm also love talking to others about blogging and the books that I write about.

When it comes to my business, Justice Literary and Justice PR, I handle both of these the same way, it's a combination of the two. I'm not the type to do just one thing. So a combination of the two works perfectly for me.

Here soon I'm going to be teaching classes on blogging, reviewing, literary topics and marketing topics on Udemy as well. So there will be those classes for me to teach.

Take a Break Watch this Vid is a feature here on Ali's Bookshelf, where I share a book trailer or even a movie trailer with you. Today I have a great book trailer for a book that I've been dying to read.

The magic and suspense of Graceling meet the political intrigue and unrest of Game of Thrones in this riveting fantasy debut.
Your greatest enemy isn't what you fight, but what you fear.
Elizabeth Grey is one of the king's best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. But when she's accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake.
Salvation comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful and dangerous wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will save her from execution if she can break the deadly curse that's been laid upon him.
But Nicholas and his followers know nothing of Elizabeth's witch hunting past--if they find out, the stake will be the least of her worries. And as she's thrust into the magical world of witches, ghosts, pirates, and one all-too-handsome healer, Elizabeth is forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies, and of love and hate.
Virginia Boecker weaves a riveting tale of magic, betrayal, and sacrifice in this unforgettable fantasy debut.

My Thoughts:

I'm super excited to share this trailer with you. I love the voice over and the effects and the colors are fantastic. The best part for me is the music, it just brings all of the fire and voice over together. Can't wait to read this book.

If you've read this fantastic looking book, let me know what you thought.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE
CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share
doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for
others!)

Share
the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants
can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.

Ariana smacks her cards faceup on the ground. "Three of a kind, kings." She cracks a beer open, and foam bubbles up around her knuckles. "Matt take off your shirt."

Hope you enjoyed that little glimpse into what I'm reading at the moment. Please, leave me a teaser below in the
comments. If you post your own teaser Tuesday post, please leave me a link below so I can read your post as well and as always...

Today is already day five of this fantastic challenge, I can't believe it. We are talking about letting go of habits and or people that don't serve you. Yeah that did sound harsh, but there is a reason. We don't want those people around who are so negative or the ones that tell you that you can't do what it is that you want to do.

I do have a few people that do just that, no I'm not going to sit here and name them. But I plan on having that little chat with each one of them and see if maybe we can fix these things.

People that I want to keep:

Family

Clients (With boundaries)

Fiance

I'm also going to cut some of the blogs that I have on my reading list. Some of them are turning out very negative and I'm not having a good time reading them. So that's another thing I'm going to be cutting.

Habits I want to Change

Going to be even more organized

Going to do a 20 minute on a task and 10 minute break technique. Think I need to work on focus.

Going to start blogging every morning as soon as my kids get on the bus, instead of going back to bed and forgetting about the blog posts.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Alright, since I don't blog on weekends, I'm going ahead and saying that today is my day 4 of this Freedom Blog Challenge. If you would like to know more about this challenge, you can CLICK HERE for more details.

So today's task is to look at what distracts you and pick one of those items and set a boundary or get rid of it all together for a certain amount of time. I will say that getting rid of something is really hard for me and especially social media seeing as I work in Marketing and the Publishing world, I need social media. So what I'm going to do is set up a few boundaries instead.

My first boundary is that I will not look at Facebook as soon as I get up anymore, I will get everything else done first.

Second boundary for me will be that I will only check emails at noon, two o'clock and at six o'clock.

(This one is for my business) Clients will only be able to reach me from noon till six PM EST.

Friday, August 21, 2015

So it's day two and it's time for another post. Today we are taking a look at that one item that will get us the furthest in our to do list. So it's what is called our Most Important Action. As I sat here at my desk wondering what it would be for the blog and for me as the blogger, I was having a hard time coming up with that one item that would get me the furthest. I mean it could be a number of things, writing reviews (which yes I really need to do), fixing my review list, going through my Goodreads shelf, etc. Then it hit me, there is one thing that I've been wanting to do for awhile now and just haven't taken the time to do it. So that is the item I am putting on my list for the next week.

MOST IMPORTANT ACTION:

Alright so this is what I'm going to start working on today, if I get it done today, but if not I will work on it again tomorrow. I'm going to re-write my About Page. A lot has changed since I wrote that page and honestly it needs a good update. After I get this finished, I will be writing those reviews, I promise!

So there we go another great post for the blog challenge, I'm actually really enjoying posting every day again. Hope you all have a great day and as always....

Thursday, August 20, 2015

As I stated earlier, I really want to get back to blogging every day and since my kids are back in school, (totally doing my happy dance,) I think it's time to get back into that routine. With that being said, I'm signed up for this 15 day blog challenge to get me back in the swing of things. Now this isn't a book challenge, this is a blogging challenge. Really think that's the reason I wanted to sign up for it. For more information about this challenge, CLICK HERE.

Day 1 – Setting yourself up for daily success

Today I'm supposed to post about my daily plan that I use to get up and get moving. So what I'm going to do, is tell you what I normally do and what I'm going to do to change it up a bit.

My Normal Morning

Wake up, stretch, and get out of bed

Go wash my face

Get my kids up and ready to go

Eat something fast and easy

Check my email and Facebook really quick

Head out to work

Not really a great way to start my day, so now let's talk about what I'm planning on changing.

New Plan

Get up, stretch, and make my bed

Wash my face

Go make something for breakfast for my kids and myself

Get kids dressed to head off to school and walk them out to the bus

Sit down at my desk and look at my to do list for the day

Go over that list and add or take away things that can be done at a later time

Check my Facebook for 10 Minutes

Check and go through Email for 15 Minutes

Write up today's blog posts for Ali's Bookshelf and my Business Blog

Get my stuff ready for work, along with my to do lists for the day

Then head off to work

Going to start this new plan tomorrow and see how it works out. Might have to tweek it a bit, but we shall see. I have an hour and a half after the kids head off to school before I have to leave for work, so that should be enough time to get dressed and post at least one blog post for the day. My Business blog post might have to be put off till I get to the office, but we shall see tomorrow and I'll let you know how it works out.

Alright, I know it's been awhile since I've posted, again let me say I am sorry about that. I messed up my back and haven't really been able to sit long enough to actually write up a post. Today however I'm feeling a bit better so I figured it was time to explain where I've been.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, so a few posts this upcoming weeks will be a bit different. I'm taking a blogging challenge and I'm hoping I will do well and start blogging every day again. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I'm so thankful for you all and thanks again for sticking with me here on the blog. I love reading and sharing that love with you all.